


Loss and Gain

by Meanderfall



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: (i actually have no idea if that scene can be inserted in s4 but i dont care it's there), Blue Team (Red vs. Blue) - Freeform, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team Feels, Team Fluff, Team as Family, before carolina shows up, canon-typical ableist language, for reference first scene is season 4-ish, last scene is post-season 8, rated for language and tucker's innuendo, second scene is post-season 5, tag can be very dangerous, this is honestly mainly fluff okay, with very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 06:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11248116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meanderfall/pseuds/Meanderfall
Summary: Just because you've lost something, it doesn't mean you've lost everything.





	Loss and Gain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Solienna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solienna/gifts).



“Andy, do you want to play tag?” Caboose stared earnestly down at the bomb.

“Tag? I don’t have any legs! You want me to _roll_ around to catch you?”

“ _Caboose_! What the _fuck_ are you doing?” Church demanded as he marched from where he was conversing with Tex and Tucker to Caboose. Honestly, he couldn’t leave Caboose alone for a single second. Not if he didn’t want someone, meaning himself, getting killed.

Caboose turned to Church and bounced on his feet for a moment in excitement. “Church! Do you want to play tag with us?”

“No, Caboose. I don’t. _Not ever again_.” Church didn’t know if it was possible for robot bodies to shudder in fear, but he was definitely feeling the urge at the moment.

“Oh. Maybe Tex wants to play.”

“No, wait,” Andy interjected, “I got a better way of playing! How ‘bout, instead of rolling around, I blow up, and whoever gets caught in the blast, is ‘it’?”

“Maybe Tucker wants to play.”

Church closed his eyes for a moment, praying for even a sliver of patience. “Andy, if you even think of blowing up my girlfriend, I’m throwing you into the ocean. And that’s only like fifty feet from here.”

“Ha! I’d like to see you try!”

“Caboose, don’t include Tex in games that could get her killed. Tucker…” Church paused. “I don’t really care honestly. You can blow him up if you want.”

“Hey!” Tucker turned away from Tex for a moment, tuning in to the conversation. “There’s only one kind of way I want to be blown, and it’s not the kind that involves a bomb!”

“Sure you can afford to pay attention to us when Tex is eyeing up your sword?”

“Which sword are we-“

“Tucker! Don’t you fucking dare finish that sentence!”

“You started it!”

“Actually, you know what? Do it. I haven’t seen Tex rip someone’s head off in a while,” Church taunted.

Tex stepped into Tucker’s space, cracking her knuckles. “And he means that in both ways.” The smirk was very clear in her voice.

Tucker leaned back, arms raised innocently. “Yeah, I don’t like this conversation anymore.”

Caboose suddenly tugged on Church’s arm, hard enough that Church thought he was going to rip it off. “Church! If we can’t play tag, can we play Tic Tac Toe instead?”

“Do you even know how to play that?” Church asked, skeptical.

“There are squares, and-and circles…” Caboose drawled the last word out, clearly trying to think of what else happened in Tic Tac Toe, “And! you make all kinds of neat patterns.”

“… Sure Caboose, let’s play Tic Tac Toe.” It could be worse, in Church’s opinion. He didn’t know how, but it could be. At least he had the basic idea down. And thank God he didn’t mention anything about x’s, or Andy might’ve tried to include himself in the game.

“Tex can join too right? I guess Tucker can play too, even though he doesn’t smell great and he’s really really dumb, and not as good a friend as I am.”

“Absolutely, Caboose. Hey, Tucker! Draw the game on the ground with your sword!”

Tex and Tucker wandered over, realizing that they probably couldn’t escape, at least not without some serious bitching from Church and not without Caboose giving them sad puppy dog eyes. They had no idea how he managed to convey them when his eyes were hidden by his visor, but he did and they were lethal. “Seriously? For something as lame as that? Dude, the beach, and therefore sand, is like twenty feet away. The world’s blackboard is a walk away. Not even a walk. A meandering.”

“Tucker, do you honestly expect me to _walk_ that kind of distance?”

“I’m not giving you another piggy-back ride,” Tucker flatly stated.

“Really, Church?” Tex asked, amused.

“Those were for science!” He insisted.

Tex tilted her helmet, indicating an eye roll, before getting down on one knee, arms held behind her. “Whatever, just hop on.”

“Yes!” Church quickly climbed on her back, unwilling to wait around for her to change her mind.

“Oh, oh, can I get a turn?” Caboose asked.

“Y’know what…”

“Tex, don’t you-”

“Why don’t you get on Church too? Then we’re _both_ giving you a piggy-back ride,” She said, lowering herself even more so Caboose could have better access.

“Ohhh!!! That is the greatest idea ever! You are so smart, Mrs. McCrabby.”

“Tex, you fucking bitch, I’ve been nothing but nice- Oh God, Caboose, how much do you weigh?”

Tex turned her head to Tucker. “You wanna get on too?”

“Yeah, as much fun as it is to mess with Church, and as impressive as it is to see you lift two, possibly three, grown men at once, and let me tell you I am very scared and turned on right now, I feel like Caboose would probably drop me on purpose. I’ll walk.”

Tex shrugged. “Suit yourself.” And with that, she stood up, not even faltering for a single moment under the weight, and led the way down to the beach, Tucker trailing behind her in order to heckle Church.

Andy, left behind and very alone, started shouting after them. “Hey! Hold on, are you leaving me behind? Guys? Guys! Come on, this stopped being funny, like, five seconds ago! You are coming back at least, right? Right?! You sure you want to leave me alone? I could blow up! Guys?”

* * *

Church’s view of the sky was abruptly replaced by a dark navy helmet. “Church, do you want to play tag?”

Church sighed, annoyed. “Go away, Caboose.”

The dark navy helmet was joined by an aqua helmet. “Dude, you’ve been laying here, staring at the sky, for the past three days. I haven’t seen you move once. Are you sure you don’t want to play tag or whatever?”

Church’s helmet tilted towards him, and Tucker didn’t have to see the glare in order to feel it.

“Yeah, alright, fair enough.”

“What about,” Caboose paused dramatically, “Monopoly?”

“Caboose, if you don’t stop asking me to play that stupid game with you, I’m going to shove the board down your throat.”

“You can do that with holograms?”

“I’ll find a way,” Church declared, voice dark with promise.

Caboose and Tucker tilted their helmets up towards each other, silently communicating. Whatever. As long as they left him alone.

…Which was clearly _not_ to be the case as Caboose then lowered himself to lie down next to him.

“Caboose, what are you doing?” He _obviously_ wanted to be on his own, how hard was that to understand?

“You didn’t want to play my games, so instead I thought I would just play your game with you. Oh! That cloud looks like a muffin,” Caboose said, pointing up at the muffin cloud. And then, softly, “I miss private Biscuit.”

“Caboose, I wasn’t fucking cloud-gazing- Tucker, don’t you dare-!” And then Tucker was also lying on the ground on his other side. Both of them had their arms pressed against his, and he was honestly feeling kind of cramped.

“That one kind of looks like a hot chick,” Tucker said thoughtfully, indicating the one he meant.

“How are you getting _that_ from a cloud?”

“Church, you have to open your mind, Church! That one looks like a dog!”

“That one? Dude, are you blind? That’s clearly a mantis,” Tucker argued.

“Looks like snakes to me. With some kind of horrible disease to make them so deformed,” Church offered before realizing what he was doing. “Hold on, why am I playing this game with you? No! I did not come here to have you two yammering in my ear the entire time. We’re playing the quiet game now.”

“Oh, I’m so very good at the quiet game!”

“I know you are, Caboose, just… shhhh.”

Finally, blessed silence.

This stupid canyon didn’t even have any life in it besides them and the grass that somehow managed to survive in everlasting sunlight and no rain, so all he heard was the occasional shift of position from Caboose and Tucker, and the rustle of the grass when a breeze blew by.

Wasn’t windy enough for the clouds above them to really move though. Made it easy to keep track of where Tex ( _ ~~blew up~~_ ) disappeared.

Church waited, tense, for them to interrupt the peace; he knew by now to never expect quiet when they were together. Motherfuckers couldn’t keep their mouth shut. It was actually kind of impressive that they managed to give him so much space for so long, before they interrupted it.

But as the quiet continued, Church found himself relaxing, joints unlocking bit by bit. Like this, it wasn’t so bad. Kind of nice, actually. Having them here, on the solid ground with him, watching the same blue sky.

Without really thinking about, Church muttered, “I should’ve thrown him into the ocean when I had the chance.”

“Yeah,” Tucker sighed, just as softly, “You’d probably break your body trying though.”

“Probably.”

“Ha! I win!” Caboose crowed.

“Good job, buddy,” Church said with way more sincerity than he intended.

From his periphery, Church saw Tucker’s helmet tilt towards him. “You wanna do something else?”

“Like what?” The wind must’ve gotten more powerful, because the clouds seemed to be drifting now.

“I got the greatest movie of all time in my room. We could watch that.”

Church finally looked away from the clouds to look at Tucker. “It’s Reservoir Dogs, isn’t it?”

“Hell fucking yeah, dude!”

Church sighed, and got to his feet, the others following suit. “Fine, let’s go.”

* * *

Wash had spent quite a few weeks in the company of the Blood Gulch crew, so he already had a pretty good idea of just how off the wall they were.

It did not prepare him for actually _living_ with them. They somehow had the knack for getting into the most insane situations, or for escalating a situation until it became insane, and Wash wavered between being annoyed with them and being really impressed. It was honestly amazing. He had no idea how they managed to survive so far, but survive they did, and Wash could admit he was grateful for it. Things might’ve gone so very different without them around.

Still, of all the things he’s seen (which included the time he watched Caboose and Tucker slather themselves with mayonnaise before going outside to tan), this might’ve been the weirdest.

“What are you two doing?”

“Cloud-gazing,” Tucker replied.

“I can see that,” Wash said, “I just don’t understand why.”

Tucker gave a non-committal shrug.

“Oh! That one kind of looks like a snake!” Caboose pointed at the cloud.

“It does, doesn’t it? Nice catch, dude.”

Wash looked up at the sky and squinted. “That one? It looks a bit too deformed to be a snake though?”

“Yup,” Tucker confirmed.

“The two of you are weird.”

“Wash, you’ve been with us for like months now. Are you seriously just getting that?”

It wasn’t so much the activity that was weird, lord knows Wash had seen them laze around often enough; it was their behaviour that was freaking him out. He’d never seen the two of them be so quiet while sharing the same space. Not to mention the arm contact? Their arms were pressed solidly together, it was like they were comforting each other or trying to remind the other of their presence, and that was beyond bizarre. Wash honestly thought he might’ve been thrown into another dimension. Or maybe he had actually died during the fight with the Meta and everything after that point was part of some fucked up afterlife he had dreamed up for himself.

(Wash pointedly ignored the fact he often worried that his time with the Reds and Blues after the Meta was some kind of hallucination he was going through in prison, having finally lost it after all this time.)

The point was, Tucker and Caboose _hated_ one another, or at the very least thought the other was beyond annoying; Wash had heard their many, _many_ arguments to confirm it. So what they were doing right now? The weirdest thing he had ever seen. Ever. Of all time.

But Wash also wasn’t an idiot, and he could already predict how the conversation would go if he tried to bring it up.

“You sure the two of you don’t want to do anything else?”

“What, like patrol? Because that’s so fun,” Tucker snarked.

“I am sorry, agent Washingtub, but I don’t feel like going on walks.”

“We could play a game in the base?” Wash tried.

“Like tag?”

“Caboose, please stop asking to play tag. We solemnly swore to never play that game again after you split Church’s back in two.”

“What?!”

“Oh, Church was in a robot body by that point, so it’s okay. It’s also how we found out how strong Caboose is.”

“Not my fault, Tucker did it.”

“You know no one believes you right?”

“…Tucker still did it,” Caboose insisted, and Tucker tilted his helmet to indicate he was rolling his eyes.

“No, I was thinking a board game? I found a bunch of stuff in one of the closets. I don’t even know how they managed to sneak a board game onto base. Or why you would want to in the first place, there are better things to do than to play Monopoly.”

“Monopoly! Yes!” Caboose shouted, sitting up.

“In this shithole? Not likely. You _were_ in Project Freelancer right? So, you know none of us were ever actually good enough to be soldiers and pretty much had nothing to do until you Freelancers showed up. In fact,  _you_  were the one that told us that."

“… So how about a rousing game of Monopoly?”

Caboose lifted his hand eagerly, and waved it around. “Oh, I want in, Agent Washington!”

Tucker sighed and sat up too. “At least tell me the board’s physical so I can flip it in a fit of rage.”

“It is,” Wash confirmed, amused.

“Awesome! Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that with holograms? And the pieces don’t even go flying when you manage to do it! It totally ruins the fun.” Caboose and Tucker both got up and started walking back to the base.

“I’m sure it does.” Wash walked behind them, listening fondly as they argued over who got to use which piece.

Never in a million years would he have guessed that this would be where he would end up after- well, after _everything_. But it wasn’t a bad place to be. No, not a bad place to be at all.


End file.
